OTTAWA—The man in charge of investigating offences under Canada’s elections laws is urging the Conservatives to abandon key parts of their electoral reform bill and strengthen others.

Testifying before a House of Commons committee Tuesday, elections commissioner Yves Côté said the push to remove his office from Elections Canada is not “a step in the right direction.”

“In placing the commissioner within the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Bill C-23 would bring under the same roof two functions that are normally, and for good reasons, kept separate,” Côté told the committee.

“It also raises concerns with respect to at least the perceived independence of the commissioner from the government of the day.”

Côté’s testimony was a stinging rebuke to Democratic Reform Minister Pierre Poilievre, who has repeatedly said Bill C-23 would ensure that Côté’s office has “sharper teeth,” a “longer reach,” and a “freer hand” in his investigations.

In fact, Côté said that some investigations will simply “abort” if his office is not given the ability to compel testimony — a reported stumbling block in the ongoing investigation into the robocalls scandal.

“If this amendment is not made, investigations will continue to take time, and in some cases a lot of time,” Côté said. “And, importantly, some will simply abort due to our inability to get at the facts.”

Earlier Tuesday, Conservative senators signalled they’d move to fast-track the bill’s passage through the Senate. After meeting with Poilievre in a closed-door caucus meeting, Conservative deputy Senate leader Yonah Martin said she’d introduce a motion to allow the Senate to study Bill C-23 before it passed through the House of Commons.

Should the motion pass, it would allow the majority Conservatives to study the bill in the Senate while it continues to be scrutinized by the House of Commons committee that Côté appeared before Tuesday.

The committee has been a tough slog for the Conservatives. Almost every expert witness called, from chief electoral officer Marc Mayrand to academics and advocacy groups, has raised serious concerns with the reform legislation.

Central to those criticisms has been the elimination of vouching, which Mayrand said could prevent as many as 120,000 Canadians from voting in the next general election. The bill also limits the ability of Elections Canada CEO to communicate with Canadians, limiting their outreach to information on how, when and where to vote. Jean-Pierre Kingsley, the former head of Elections Canada, said the bill would shake Canadians’ faith in their electoral system if passed as is.

Concluding his testimony Tuesday night, Côté said he would “strongly urge” the committee to consider amendments put forward by Mayrand.

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